Yes, the chapter title is a blatant rip-off of the episode "Unfamiliar Ceiling" of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

This fic contains massive spoilers for the series.

Some characters (notably Takasugi) may be out of character. I hereby claim artistic license, even though it isn't mine.

Please review, like or dislike the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Princess Nine or any of its characters. Suing me is a waste of your time and money.

Her Answer, Unexpected

Chapter Two: Unfamiliar Darkness

Izumi sat at the foot of her bed, still holding Ryo's hand. She wasn't sure she had done the right thing. Had she, perhaps, overstepped her limits? Maybe this hadn't been the right time to invite Ryo over. Was she taking advantage of her, in her exhausted state? She stood and disentangled her hand from the other girl, pausing as Ryo sighed in her sleep. She left the room, closed the door, and leaned against it, regarding the ceiling.

She sighed, and walked into the living room, where the two girls had been sitting minutes earlier. She reached for the phone, then wondered who to call. She'd always gone to Takasugi with her problems, but obviously that was out of the question. She considered calling one of the other girls on the team, but she wasn't close to most of them. She liked them well enough, with the exception of Arisu and possibly Yoko, but most of them didn't like her, though they respected her abilities. Seira would only overreact and probably go fight Takasugi herself. Kanako would probably be busy. Hikaru maybe? Or Yuki. Chiyo seemed nice, but she was still something of an outsider and Izumi didn't have her phone number anyway.

Izumi laughed at herself. How likely would any of the others be to understand Ryo sleeping in her bed?

'Even by herself,' Izumi mused. She gave up on the idea of calling anyone, and instead wandered out into the garden, where she kicked at rocks for awhile.

A little later, back in Izumi's room, Ryo woke up alone. She had had nightmares in which Takasugi attacked her and no one could defend her. Staring into the unfamiliar darkness, she felt alone and afraid.

'Where am I?' she wondered, staring at the ceiling. She shifted around in bed, and everything came back. She sat up, almost too fast, and called out.

"Izumi?"

The door swung open, slamming against the wall, and Izumi rushed inside. She had been sitting with her back to the door, worrying about Ryo, somehow not quite daring to go inside.

"What is it, Ryo? What's the matter?"

"I'm glad you're still here." said Ryo, reaching out an arm towards Izumi.

'So am I,' thought Izumi, embracing her.

The two girls heard a noise in the direction of the front door. Izumi instinctively pulled away, but kept her hand on Ryo's shoulder when the pitcher regarded her sadly. Hearing footsteps in the hall outside, Izumi looked at Ryo questioningly, then helped her gently out of bed, supporting her with an arm around her. Normally Ryo would have objected ("I'm not injured") but she found herself enjoying it. It seemed to fill a recently emptied part of her.

Keiko Himuro, Izumi's mother, was quietly (though audibly) moving around outside the door. Izumi thanked her stars the door was closed. While she dreaded explaining Ryo's presence in her bed to her teammates, she was reluctant even to think about explaining to her mother, who had never seemed terribly fond of her in the first place, though she could be indulgent. Izumi rather suspected that her mother's presence at the team's baseball games was more for Ryo's sake than anything else. Eventually, the noise of her footsteps stopped near the door, and her voice called out, "Izumi? Are you in there?"

Izumi was surprised, to tell the truth. Usually her mother kept her at arm's length, figuratively speaking (and more often than not even further away in the literal sense), and they didn't bother each other until at least dinnertime. But dinner was an hour away at least. Izumi quit speculating and said, "Yes, I'm here."

"Why don't you come join me out here?" asked her mother. "I have tea."

'Ah,' thought Izumi. It was one of her mother's sporadic attempts at being social. The last one had been about a month prior, and had resulted in a rather badly burnt cake (Mrs. Himuro was usually at least a passable cook, but she had trouble performing the unfamiliar task of socializing with her daughter at the same time).

Izumi looked at Ryo, still leaning against her, her head on the taller girl's shoulder.

"Mother," said Izumi, clearing her throat, "I have a guest."

"Oh," said her mother, "is it Hiroki? May I come in?"

"Alright," said Izumi, sitting Ryo down on her bed.

Izumi's mother opened the door, her fingers finding the lightswitch next to it and flicking it on.

"Oh, hello, Hayakawa." said Izumi's mother. "It's good to see that you two are still getting along."

'Still?" wondered Izumi, looking at Ryo, who shrugged. She turned back to face her mother.

"But why were you two sitting in the dark?"

"Well, you know," said Ryo in a conspiratorial tone, leaning in towards the chairman, while Izumi succeeded rather nicely at not looking alarmed, "it was... a séance!"

The chairman looked amused, but skeptical. Izumi was taken aback, not having suspected Ryo of such a mischievous sense of humor, much less of being in any mood to exercise it.

"What," said the chairman, "communing with spirits of baseball legends of the past?"

"Yeah," said Ryo, "it's too bad you missed Babe Ruth. You have no idea what a great sense of humor he has."

"I had no idea he knew Japanese." The chairman laughed. "Why not your father?"

Ryo suddenly grew serious.

"Because I know him, here." She pointed to her skull. "And here," she added, indicating her heart, "so I don't need to. Not anymore."

Ryo gazed out the window. The previous year, Ryo had discovered, for the first time, that her father had been implicated in a betting scandal after money was discovered in his locker. He had subsequently been banned from professional baseball on suspicion of rigging a game, though nothing was proven. Ryo had doubted his innocence initially, but after meeting a man who had known him, doubted no longer.

Mrs. Himuro was staring out the window as well. One of the few things that could break her usual cold composure was talk of her former boyfriend, Hidehiko Hayakawa, who she had known in his pro baseball days. He was, perhaps, the reason she was eager to have her daughter, Izumi, get along with Ryo.

Snapping out of her daze, Izumi's mother gestured towards the door and lead the two girls into the living room, where she had set out a tea set, complete with hot tea and tea cakes. She sat in a dark brown wooden chair with a pastel cushion, and the two girls sat in identical chairs across the matching wood table from her.

"So," asked Izumi's mother, serving tea "did anything interesting happen at practice today?"

The two girls exchanged glances.

"Well," began Izumi, "that new girl, Mido, is a bit of a pain."

"She was flirting with Takasugi," said Ryo in a matter-of-fact tone, "and he was letting her, and enjoying it."

Izumi's mother looked at Ryo with a concern echoed in her daughter's face. Ryo was usually much more emotional about such things. Perhaps, reflected Izumi, Ryo was not yet fully recovered.

"And?"

"And I broke up with him."

Ryo was staring into her teacup, looking dazed and perhaps slightly ill. She took a sip of her tea, and began to cough and sputter. The chairman began to stand, but Izumi stopped Ryo's coughing with a few well-placed, decisive thumps to the back. Ryo looked up at her gratefully.

"So," asked the chairman, changing the subject awkwardly, "are you girls ready for the new school year? It's starting in a few days."

It was a moment which gave Izumi insight into her mother. Mrs. Himuro was a woman whose main social skills fell into the areas of arguments and confrontations, not good material for building a solid relationship. She had, perhaps, been less withdrawn before her breakup with Hidehiko Hayakawa, but in any case, in casual conversation, she avoided awkward or painful subjects if possible, being elusive or concealing the truth rather than facing it head on. Where it mattered, Izumi reflected, her mother was a coward. But then, in some ways, so was she.

Izumi came back to the conversation. "I am," she said with her usual certainty.

Ryo looked up. "So am I," she said weakly, her voice rough from coughing.

The chairman cleared her throat as the two girls slowly sipped their tea, Izumi dignified and Ryo cautious.

"Well," she said, "that's good to hear. Would either of you girls like some cake?"

Izumi shook her head. "I'm sorry, mother, but I think Ryo should return home now. It is approaching dinnertime."

"Well," said the chairman, standing, "I'll see you at school, Hayakawa. Izumi, will you be accompanying her home?"

The two girls glanced at one another. Izumi, for one, hadn't thought of the possibility, but looking into the smaller girl's eyes, she knew she wanted to.

"Yes, mother," she said, "I will."

The chairman walked the two girls to the door, smiling faintly. As they left, she waved goodbye.

The girls walked in silence. Once they were out of sight of the house, Izumi gave Ryo a quick hug.

"Hey, you alright?"

"Yeah," said Ryo, and continued silently for a few steps.

"Hey, Izumi?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks."

Izumi hugged Ryo in answer. They walked for awhile, their strides synchronized, a little apart. Izumi watched the smaller girl, listening to her breathing. She considered putting her arm around the pitcher as they walked, but couldn't quite work herself up to it.

'I've never been prone to displays of affection before,' mused Izumi, 'and only rarely even with Hiroki. What's wrong with me?'

"Hmmm?" asked Ryo, noticing that something was troubling the other girl.

"Oh, no," said Izumi, smiling, "don't worry about it."

"Okay," said Ryo, and they continued in silence until they reached the door to Ryo's mother's oden bar.

Izumi hesitated, unwilling to go in. Ryo, also hesitated, then opened her mouth and said, "Izumi, would you like to come inside?"

Izumi nearly protested, but realizing it would be impolite to decline (and also that she didn't really want to) followed Ryo inside.

Shino Hayakawa, Ryo's mother, looked up from where she was cooking Oden. She greeted Ryo, noticing Izumi with a start of surprise.

"Oh, Izumi," she said, "come in! Sit down!"

Izumi sat at the bar, trying to think of a polite way to refuse the oden Ryo's mother offered her.

"I don't have any money," said Izumi awkwardly.

"As I've said before," said Mrs. Hayakawa, "Ryo's friends eat free."

"Besides," she said in a low tone, leaning towards Izumi, "I never had a chance to properly thank you for what you did that night at the hospital."

Izumi bit her lip, feeling very awkward indeed.

"So you were there!" exclaimed Ryo, "that wasn't just a dream!"

She smiled at Izumi, a smile which, she reflected ruefully, made it quite impossible for her to refuse the food and quite worth the trouble of being embarrassed.

'I thought I'd learned,' she reflected, eating quietly, 'I thought Hiroki had taught me not to let myself depend on anyone, not so much.'

But she was interrupted by Ryo's smile, which faded as Ryo explained the events of the day (glazing over Takasugi's near attack by saying that he had been a jerk and Izumi had gotten him to go away, and omitting the hour or more she had spent asleep in Izumi's bed).

Shino Hayakawa smiled at Izumi.

"Well, thank you for being such a good friend to my daughter."

A few minutes later, Izumi finished her oden and excused herself, returning home.

The next day at practice, Izumi and Ryo were slightly awkward around one another. The rest of the team, of course, picked up on it, and eventually Seira cornered Ryo to ask what was wrong. The other girls, except for Arisu and Izumi, crowded around. Ryo explained about her breakup with Takasugi, while Seira got progressively angrier.

"He did WHAT?" exclaimed Seira. "That bastard!"

"Yeah," continued Ryo, "but it's okay, Izumi protected me."

"Protected you?" asked Koharu, "How?"

Ryo shuffled her feet.

Izumi cleared her throat.

"I hit him with a baseball in the nose."

Seira looked at her with a new respect, whistling. "Wow," she said quietly, "I guess I don't have to go beat him up after all."

She turned to Ryo, "but if you ever need me to, I will."

Ryo scratched at her ear, slightly embarrassed.

"Hiroki told me about the whole thing," said Arisu, sneering, "and you're going to regret breaking up with him. And you," she said, turning towards Izumi, "you are going to regret hitting him."

"I had heard good things of Izumi Himuro," continued Arisu, as snide as ever, "and I thought that you might be worth associating with, but it seems the rumors were false. A pity."

She left, indignant.

As the other girls watched Arisu leave, Chiyo approached Ryo.

"Look," she said, pulling off a Kisaragi Girl's baseball cap to run her fingers through her hair, "don't let her get to you. Best thing to do with such a person is to ignore them – if you pay them any mind, it only increases their ego." She patted Ryo on the shoulder, and, pulling the cap back on, backwards, she walked out the door. A moment later, she turned, calling out, "See you on Monday!"

"You know," commented Hikaru as she left, "I think I like her."

"Yeah, she's alright," said Ryo.

Saying farewell to the remaining members of the team, Ryo left the school and walked home on her own. She didn't see Takasugi until he stopped his bicycle in front of her, blocking her path. A bandage covered his nose and part of his right cheek. The bandage was pristine white, so the injury hadn't been bleeding recently, but Takasugi looked nearly as angry as he had at first. He got off his bike, letting it fall to the ground, and grabbed Ryo roughly by the shoulders, smirking.

"Girls don't just leave me." he said, and shook her a little. "I'm still stronger than you."

With one last smirk, he got back onto his bicycle, and rode off, leaving Ryo shaken. He hadn't hurt her, but he had proven that he could.

Ryo headed straight home, trying not to think about Takasugi. When she got home, she considered calling Izumi, but she was too tired, and instead went to bed. She'd spend the weekend preparing for the new school year and tell Izumi on Monday. With that thought in mind, she went to sleep, for once staying that way until morning.